


Soldier Days

by xjEstelli



Category: Mulan (1998)
Genre: Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-21
Updated: 2015-09-21
Packaged: 2018-04-22 16:57:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4843196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xjEstelli/pseuds/xjEstelli
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All the silliness and struggle we missed out on during Mulan's days in the training camp.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Soldier Days

**Author's Note:**

> I decided to reupload this mainly to complement my other fanfic, Dumpling Days. This is also a story per chapter, also bordering 1000-2000 words long each. Only selected chapters will be reposted, and plenty of new content will come as well.
> 
> Anyway, so basically I wished they had shown more of what had gone down during their time at the training camp because it is simply a couple scenes, then a montage, then a couple more scenes, and that's it. They spent weeks/months in that camp, we definitely missed out on loads of other fun/painful/awkward moments during that time. There were many different conflicts (both internal and external), different relationships, and unique factors that arose the moment Mulan stepped into camp, and are all catalysts for much drama and entertainment. Enough to make a cartoon series, I bet. Since we clearly do not have that, here's a fanfic.

This was new. Instead of all the crazy bucket-balancing, rock-fencing, teetering-on-the-edge-of-a-cliff training that the troops had been doing (and they had been doing all three at the same time), they were doing something different.

This time, they were fishing.

They were fishing with their bare hands, but still.

Mulan gratefully rolled up her pants and stepped into the refreshingly cool river with the other men. Shang demonstrated how to snatch up a fish, making it look completely effortless like he did with everything else. Well, the men weren't fooled any longer by this stage.

Mulan sliced the water with her hand, grinning when she grabbed a fish and yanked it up. Except it turned out not to be a fish at all but Yao's foot from where he had been standing beside her. Yao blew a few bubbles from where his entire body was submerged. Mulan gave an apologetic grin and tentatively lowered his foot back into the water by his big toe.

There was a slight pause.

Then Yao attacked.

As a girl, Mulan had hardly been touched. The only times she was were with the firm but gentle hands of other women. Even her kind parents had hardly ever beaten her as a child, which was practically unheard of in their small town (and, she realized, was probably something that contributed to her lack of discipline and grace). The few times she had ever been in pain were due to scraped knees and hot tea burns (again with the lack of discipline and grace).

As a boy in the army, she was positively manhandled.

Mulan was quickly getting used to all the violence she was on the receiving end of as a soldier. Other men would punch her, shove her, trip her and yank her around because everybody was a guy and it was a pretty guy-ish thing to do, and also because everybody hated Ping. She would initially be frozen in shock and stunned into silence before thinking I'm taking this for my father and Ouch. Pain hurts. Then she would regain her composure and try to avoid any other 'knuckle sandwiches'.

She was getting better at taking it like a man. The only bad thing was that the guys also had a habit of grabbing her by the collar of her shirt, and she was afraid that if they stretched her uniform too far away from her chest both she and her secret would be exposed. Yeah. She so could not let that happen.

Luckily, that didn't happen this time as Yao decided to take simplest option and just tackle her into the water so that now they were both drenched to the core. Then he dunked her head underwater and held it there, growling obscenities. Mulan instinctively flailed but Yao forcefully pushed her head down further and she knew it would be pointless to struggle. So she waited, knowing he had to let her up sometime. He wouldn't actually drown her, right?

Right?

The murkiness she was in became murkier as black crept in at the corner of her vision. Her pathetic attempts to push herself to the surface stilled and she was so certain she was going to die this time.

Then suddenly she was being yanked upwards and she broke through the surface, gasping and hacking. She expected to look down towards Yao, but instead her eyes travelled upwards to meet Shang's. Her savior. Who was currently glaring at her.

"It's his fault. Ping started it," Yao spat.

Always her fault. Mulan took it. But right now she was more concerned with her painful nose and throat from the water that had managed to shoot through them, and the throbbing on the back of her head. She was still in a dazed kind of alarm from what had just happened.

Shang looked like he couldn't agree more with Yao. He wasn't surprised any longer by this little runt's mischievous ways, always causing trouble, always creating chaos. He just found it bizarre that Ping didn't pick someone more his own size. What was his damage?

"I need men in my troops, not immature girls," Shang said lowly. "If you keep acting like children, I will have to keep treating you like children. You are soldiers. Act like it. The army is no place for fighting."

With that, he instructed each of them to head to the banks on opposite sides, beyond tackling range. They were to take the big baskets and head up and down the river where the other soldiers were lined and collect any fish that they caught. There weren't many as no one could hold a candle to Shang's superior fishing skills. The fish that were caught were thrown in the direction of her face and not the basket. Any fish Yao collected was whipped at her face as well. She scowled but managed to keep her cool.

Once the training was over and not only was she fabulously drenched but fishy-smelling, she thought, I'm taking this for my father.

Also, Ouch. Pain hurts.


End file.
